[Not a] Cacodemon (Patreon)

Hello everyone. Thanks so much for jumping on this subscription. Your support goes a long long way, and I am grateful. At time of typing I have already sent out the first sticker to each of you with a complimentary "Coffee and Hate" logo sticker. (There is also one other surprise in there for you ;-))  If you don't get your stickers soon, please message me and let me know.

Now, where did this first design come from? Originally, I set out to make my own version of a Cacodemon from DOOM.

For those of you not in the know, DOOM was THE original First Person Shooter. (Wolfenstein came first, but we won't mention that.) Growing up, we did not have a game system. We did however have a PC.  My older brother got his hands on many games, both bootlegged and bought, and loaded every family computer we had with every game it could run, and I devoured all of them. What was the best of all of these games? DOOM.

I played the original DOOM and its sequel with the zeal of an angry boy with no other outlet. I was obsessed with it to the point that I matched the world record speed-run at the time. I loved the music, I loved the design, I loved the grim dark setting and storyline, and I didn't at all recognize the tongue-in-cheek humor that permeated the most violent video game of its day.

Now, decades later, still angry, but with tons of outlets, I looked back on the original DOOM and thought about what was perhaps the best, most iconic character that I would want to make my own version of. That would be the Cacodemon. While researching the original design for this creature, I happened upon an old controversy. The original design was stolen from a D&D manual.

Comparing the designs, I found it positively comical that anyone at all could defend that the Cacodemon of DOOM was its own original design. So comical in fact, that I would like to perpetuate such foolishness. So please enjoy my own 100% original design for a floating demon head monster with horns. I call it the "NOT a Cacodemon."

I took the design for the original and added a few of my own spins. I changed the shape of the head to make it leaner, and make the jaw more pronounced. I extended, sharpened, and multiplied the horns. I interpreted the mandible to have more spikes coming out of it, and I tried to give the whole thing a balanced asymmetry. Then came inks, and then colors. The results are depicted below.

Thanks so much for reading and subscribing. I can't wait to tell you all about the next one when I mail it.
-Gabe D.

P.S. This post will be public, but I plan on subsequent posts to be for patrons only.